On the 25th March I saw a Facebook post from Mosetlha Bush Camp and Eco Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve saying that they had availability for the Easter weekend. Ever since I visited there in November 2025 I have been hankering to go back, so quick as a flash, I booked my room.
I arrived on Friday the 3rd of April, and after the “grand tour” and a lunch of their wonderful hamburgers, we set off on our first game drive. This is what we saw: many lilac-breasted and purple rollers, an elephant in musth who didn’t enjoy our presence and charged us, both brown and spotted hyena, a small pride of mom lioness with her two male and two female subadults, and in the evening after a lovely sundowner we saw about 5 spotted Eagle Owl and 4 Puff Adders slithering across the road.
Over the next couple of days we saw the pride of 5 cheetah brothers, a couple of prides of lions, and two packs of African wild dog. The wild dogs start getting active at about sundown, and they run around and yip at each other and play like real puppies. Of course, being a dog lover, I was enthralled by this!
We also were privileged to see two leopard cubs up a tree gnawing on an impala that mom had killed and dragged up and wedged into the branches of the tree. Unfortunately we were quite far away so the photos aren’t great, but you can get the gist of it.
Western Yellow-bellied Sand Snake – we had just arrived in camp and completed the “tour” when our host noticed this snake slithering up a tree.
Mauritian Tomb Bat – this little male bat nests in the roof of the lounge area at Mosetlha Bush Camp. I didn’t hear a single mozzie, so I think he is doing his job! But the poop on the coffee table is a bit of a turn-off. Read more here: Mauritian Tomb Bat
A huge bull elephant in musth. When you read the description in Wikipedia, this male displayed all the traits – temporal gland secretions, constant urination, and aggression. He wasn’t happy that we were in the same hemisphere as he was! Read more here: Musth
The usual suspect, the Red-billed Oxpecker, sitting on the giraffe’s head.
Lilac-breasted Roller
Brown Hyena – considered the rarest species of hyena and is marked as is marked as near threatened in the IUCN Red List. Read more here: Brown Hyena
He he he, that is a good joke!!
Puff adder crossing the road
Spotted Eagle-Owl
Black-backed Jackal pair
Two leopard cubs on an impala kill that their mother dragged up a tree
The leopard mom came back to see what the cubs had left her
Immature Pale Chanting Goshawk
Wildebeest baby drinking from mommy
Lilac-breasted Roller
Lilac-breasted Roller
African Pipit
I really don’t like photographing collared animals, but this photo is too endearing to pass up
A little brotherly love
The animals come to this area in Madikwe to get minerals from the earth. It looks like they are eating mud clumps – and they are!
Our eagle-eyed guide, Justice, spotted this Flap-necked Chameleon crossing the road. He was about to get squished by another car so Justice hopped out of the vehicle and rescued him. He took a little time for a photo shoot. You can see the difference in colour from when he was on the road to when he was on the branch. Amazing creatures!
Flap-necked Chameleon crossing the road – slowly!
Purple Roller
Southern Banded Groundling (a type of dragonfly). Read more here: Groundling
Lesser Grey Shrike
A fine feast of sweetcorn and “fried” eggs. The food at Mosetlha is amazing!
Easter decorations, which the resident squirrels found very tasty!
Easter breakfast feast, including toasted hot cross buns
In November 2025 I spent 3 nights at Mosetlha Bush Camp & Eco Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve on the border with Botswana. Madikwe is the fifth-largest game reserve in South Africa, and one of the largest Big 5 reserves.
Mosetlha Bush Camp is a fully off-grid camp, using only borehole water (tastes fantastic) and solar and paraffin lanterns. Hot water is supplied by means of wood-burning donkey. There is a gas fridge to keep the drinks cold (very important).
There is an electric fence designed to keep only the elephants out so you might be surprised on the way to the loo in the middle of the night!
They provide all meals and two game drives per day. The wonderful thing about Madikwe is that if you see an animal that is way off in the bush, the rangers will drive “off-road” to get closer to the sighting.
The photos of the lion feeding on the carcass of the elephant are a little gory, but rest assured, the elephant died of natural causes. The only “unnatural” thing about it is the fact that the rangers dragged the carcass some way from where the ele died, as it was very close to one of the lodges, and believe me, the smell was terrible!
There is a coalition of 5 male cheetah, all from the same mother. Sadly, the mother died of injuries sustained during a hunt. Two of the cheetah are collared, so the rangers can keep an eye on them.
It is also wonderful to see so many African Wild Dog – such a privilege to view them in their natural habitat.
If you would like to make a booking at Mosetlha Bush Camp & Eco Lodge book directly through their website using the hyperlink in this paragraph.
Terrapins two by two!
Cape Hare
African Hawk-Eagle
Diederik Cuckoo
Blue Waxbill
Mocking Cliff Chat
Brown Hyena
Brown Hyena
Brown Hyena
Brown Hyena
Slender Mongoose
African Buffalo
African Wild Dog
Aardwolf
Aardwolf
Cheetah
Kudu
Leopard
Lilac-breasted Roller
Purple Roller
Chameleon
African Wild Dog
African Wild Dog (used to be known as the Painted Wolf): See more here: African Wild Dog
Purple Roller
Crested Barbet
Violet-backed Starling
Pale Chanting Goshawk trying his best to catch a mongoose (he didn’t succeed)
Jacobin Cuckoo
Southern yellow-billed Hornbill
Violet-backed Starling
Lion eating Elephant in Madikwe
SENSITIVE CONTENT: maggots on the elephant
Lion eating Elephant in Madikwe
The chalet at Motsetlha Bush Camp
Madikwe landscape
Sicklebush flower, Dichrostachys cinerea
Desert shaggy mane (Podaxis pistillaris), a poisonous fungus. See more here: Desert Shaggy Mane
Mark and Alice, my usual travelling companions, set off for the Kruger National Park in November 2025, starting off in the north and slowly making our way south.
Our plans were confounded by the weather – the first couple of days was very rainy and miserable. I can say with absolute certainty that I don’t like camping in the rain. Everything is damp, and the mud! Not for the faint-hearted.
Photography isn’t the greatest in the rain, but it was a good learning experience, what with low light and soggy animals. I think I got some good photos nonetheless.
One of the campsites that we stayed at was Tzendze Rustic Camp Site. As we drove in and found our site, I saw some people off in the bush. I walked over and the camp manager pointed out a Western Barn Owl nest with babies in it, a Pearl Spotted Owlet pair flying around their nest, and a sleeping African Scops Owl. A three-fer in the first couple of minutes of arriving! I will definitely stay at Tzendze again.
We didn’t have great animal viewing, thus the heavy bird content. On the second last day we came across a pack of African Wild Dogs, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Initially they were all sleeping under a huge bush, and we only caught glimpses of them as they shifted position. We waited for about 2 hours, but our patience paid off. Suddenly the whole pride was up and greeting each other with wild yips and barks.
I fell in love with a young male – the sole survivor of a litter of pups – who was playing with a stick. One of the Wild Dog researchers was staying in the campsite next to us and she gave us the history of the pack. I guess seeing as he didn’t have other litter mates to play with, he had to made do with a stick. He would throw it in the air, carry it in his mouth, change sticks when he got the chance. Here I have captured a few of the very many images that I got of him.
Immature Egyptian Geese
Western Cattle Egret
Laughing Dove
Laughing Dove
Green-winged Pytilia
White-fronted Bee-eater
Impala with Red-billed Oxpecker
Crocodile
White-fronted Bee-eater with dragonfly
Vervet monkey – that bite looks quite painful!
Red-chested Cuckoo
Brown-hooded Kingfisher
African Harrier Hawk
African Fish Eagle
Goliath Heron
Three-banded Plover
A tower of giraffes
Kurrichane Thrush
Grey-backed Cameroptera
Greater Blue-eared Starling
Common Slender Mongoose
Broad-billed Roller
Southern Crested Guineafowl – love the funky hairdo!
A very sad and soggy Lilac-breasted Roller
Black-backed Puffback
Grey Go-away-bird
Wood Sandpiper
Goliath Heron
African Grey Hornbill
Brown-headed Parrot
European Bee-eater
Burchell’s Coucal
Golden-breasted Bunting
Lilac-breasted Roller
Waterbuck
Woodland Kingfisher
White-bellied Sunbird
Hamerkop
Immature Martial Eagle
Giraffe and Red-billed Oxpecker
Mommy Impala with very new baby – mom still has blood on her from the birth
Jacobin Cuckoo
Elephants can be left- or right-tusked, with majority being right-tusked. Thus, this tusk gets used more often than the non-dominant tusk. It is therefore shorter due to wear and tear, and often a groove forms – this is caused by using the tusk to cut vegetable matter. Eventually, when the groove becomes too deep, the tip breaks off.
White-browed Sparrow-weaver
Female Red-backed Shrike
Male Red-backed Shrike
Spotted Flycatcher
Jacobin Cuckoo
Male Long-tailed Paradise Whydah
Lilac-breasted Roller
Soggy baby Zebbie
Pearl-spotted Owlet
Western Barn Owl baby in nest
African Scops Owl
Three-banded Plover
African Jacana
African Darter
African Paradise Flycatcher
Southern Bushbuck
Pearl-spotted Owlet, one of my favourite birds!
African Scops Owl keeping an eye on the goings-on
Red-headed weaver
Sabota Lark
Female Steenbok
Kittlitz’s Plover
Western Barn Owl looking like he is about to impart a great wisdom
Southern Ground Hornbill with his lizard kill (endangered species – the bird, not the lizard!)
Greater Painted Snipe – not a great photo, but very difficult to photograph
In August 2023, I embarked on a trip to Botswana – the first time I had led a trip! I must admit, I was a bit nervous about leading such an expedition. It is quite a responsibility to take on, especially when one is a bit of a novice at this overlanding thing, as I am.
John Gale from Out There Overland Travel drew up the itinerary and made all the bookings. All that was left was to pack our stuff and hit the road. The routing took us to Khama Rhino Sanctuary for one night, then on to Kubu Island, Third Bridge in Moremi Game Reserve and then to Baines Baobab and Nxai Pan National Park.
Third Bridge was amazing! It is an unfenced camp, and we had a huge elephant bull walking through the campsite, unperturbed by human presence. Also close by was a pride of four lionesses lying in the grass less than 500m from the camp gate.
One evening Mark and Alice and I were sitting around the dying campfire in near darkness. I felt a presence to my right hand side, so I shone my torch there and about 3 metres from me was a spotted hyena! I don’t know who got more of a fright – me at seeing the hyena, him at seeing me, or Mark and Alice at my superb language!
Baines Baobab, named for the artist and explorer Thomas Baines, didn’t disappoint. We had one of the three isolated campsites, snuggled between two huge baobabs. The silence at night is complete. Unfortunately the road in isn’t the greatest, very corrugated, and your teeth feel like the fillings are rattling loose. And when it isn’t corrugated, you stand the risk of getting stuck in deep sand if your tyre pressures aren’t optimal.
The road from Savuti to Maun gave us some problems, getting stuck in the sand and doing major repairs to Dave’s trailer.
The trip really began when we arrived at Kubu Island. On each of the two nights I went out after dark and took some star shots – a lot of experimenting later and I came away with one good photo!
Makgadikgadi Pan
Kalahari Scrub Robin
Baobab at sunrise
Looking west, before dawn
Before sunrise
Kubu Island campsite
The bridge that gives Third Bridge campsite its name
Peeping giraffe
Loving head bump
That’s a beeeeg stretch!
Synchronised lip smacking, just outside the campsite. PS. The camp is unfenced!!
The trip that was planned for 2020 had to be postponed, as did a lot of life! Luckily enough we could keep our payments over for the following year. The route that was planned for us is a very restricted route – I believe only 3 or 4 permits per year are issued to drive this route. It goes to the south of Big Daddy Dune and Deadvlei, with lots of hectic dune driving.
I had zero experience of driving in the dunes, and let me tell you, it is a fine art of knowing when to take your foot off the accelerator, resist the urge to hit the brakes, and stop on the crest of the dune. I had a couple of interesting experiences, and I think our guide Simon feared for my survival.
However, when you get it right, the feeling is elation! And going down the slip-face of the dune is another whole experience – the dune literally sings at you. The sand rumbles as you drive down it, and it is quite fantastic to hear.
We entered the desert through a non-descript gate and drove for what seemed like hours on a terribly corrugated twee-spoor track until we finally came upon the dunes – how magnificent!
The scrubby veld on the drive to the dunes
The sun sets on our first day
The view from the loo on our first night
A very relaxing evening
The sunsets are fantastic!
The heat was intense on the whole trip – here it is still 43 degrees C at 4:20pm!
Drivers, start your engines
This is where the serious driving starts. I had heard stories about dune driving, but I’d never done it before so this was going to be an experience and a half! It took a while for me to master the fine art of stopping on the crest of a dune, without either careening over the other side, or stopping to soon and getting stuck and having to be towed off backwards to try all over again.
The view out of my left window when I was stuck at the top of my first ever dune! I was somewhat freaked out, and waaay too scared to get out of the vehicle. I thought any slight movement would cause the car to roll down the dune. I was, however, stuck up to the axle in sand – the vehicle wouldn’t have moved an inch!
You want me to go down there?! The view down into the valley of the dune – if you look hard enough you can see Simon’s car just above my bonnet on the left hand side.
Slip-face driving – when you drive down the other side of the dune, the sand gathers some speed and the dune roars with the sound of the slipping sand
Just some running repairs
Sculpted sand
We were lucky to happen upon a fulgurite – which is a natural tube of fused sand which forms when lightning discharges into the ground. I was fascinated by this clump of hollow rock.
